Preventive healthcare has become more popular these days as technologies are changing people’s behaviour in dealing with their health matters.
The trend is being stimulated by the Covid-19 pandemic amidst the growth of e-commerce. Also, the availability of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) serves as a catalyst for products and services that cater to personal healthcare needs.
Outpatients are increasingly looking to drugstores for telemedicine and telepharmacy services. Telemedicine is the medical practice using technology to deliver care at a distance while telepharmacy is the delivery of pharmaceutical care via telecommunications to patients.
The services help reduce the workload of hospitals and the waiting time for patients seeking treatment.
The idea of lessening doctors’ workload and visits to overcrowded hospitals — perhaps even the need to get medicine at pharmacies — all inspired the establishment of Bangkok Drugstore.
- Sathien Setthasit’s vision of modernizing grocery stores for local communities
- Post-Covid economic scenarios and necessary corporate and personal skills
Chuwit Waisiriroaj, deputy managing director of Bangkok Drugstore Co Ltd, told The Story Thailand that pharmacies are capable of offering basic advice to patients with simple diseases although more serious cases are often referred to physicians.
He said the drugstore’s ability to connect with doctors or hospitals through a telemedicine platform “will make the system more complete”. This way, doctors can offer medical advice and prescribe medicines that can be purchased from pharmacies.
Bangkok Drugstore has started offering telepharmacy service, allowing customers to seek advice from pharmacists through its call centre, according to Chuwit. Also, telepharmacy service has been available publicly — and not just Bangkok Drugstore customers — since mid-June through a mobile application the company develops.
“After the third wave of Covid-19 outbreak, we sped up the launch of telepharmacy service through the Bangkok Drugstore app,” Chuwit said.
He added that the app has been downloaded more than 40,000 times and an average 580 customers sought advice from its pharmacists each day over the recent weeks.
Bangkok Drugstore has some 100 branches throughout the city and the adjacent provinces. The pharmacies are open 24 hours a day and have more than 200 pharmacists in total.
Every Bangkok Drugstore outlet has its own pharmacist. When a customer seeks advice through the app, the system connects them to the pharmacist linked to the branch located closest to the customer. If the nearest pharmacist fails to answer the call within 30 seconds, the waiting customer is then referred to another pharmacist from the central office for consultation.
After making an order and a payment, the customer can choose whether to get their medicines at the nearest branch or have their courier deliver them to their place.
“The fact that Bangkok Drugstore has many branches allows us to serve our customers quickly and comprehensively,” Chuwit said.
Customers can access Bangkok Drugstore services through the app, mainly by chats, although they may seek advice from pharmacists by audio and video calls, which are required in case customers look for medicines.
At present, most customers are patients of general ailments and those with chronic diseases who take to take medicines regularly. The latter group opt not to visit hospital at this time.
The company, an SME, has been affected by the Covid-19 situation, with a reduction in customers and purchasing power, Chuwit said. He added, however, that the company opted to cut other costs instead of laying off its employees, and it is also looking for more investment to boost its liquidity.
A future plan calls for Bangkok Drugstore to expand its services through technologies, relying on its app, to cover areas beyond Bangkok and some adjacent provinces where its branches are located.
There will be links to its allies that have digital medical systems so that more healthcare services can be offered to customers through telemedicine apps such as Acnog.
In addition to consulting pharmacists, more features will be added to take care of the customers’ health through smart devices, such as smartwatch. For instance, the Bangkok Drugstore app will be able to record health-related information and warn when it is time to take medicine. At present, the system allows app users to record their ailments, medicine prescription history, and drug allergy.
“We hope to take care of the customers’ health with a single app through links with different apps of our allies. The Bangkok Drugstore app will be able to connect with various health service systems for improved care of customers,” Chuwit said.
He added that this could be achieved through the AI feature used for initial diagnosis and the telemedicine feature to refer patients to doctors.
Bangkok Drugstore currently has almost 3,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) of products — about 80 per cent of them are medicines composed of both common household medicines and prescription drugs. The remainder includes medical equipment and food supplements.
Each Bangkok Drugstore branch has about 200 customers a day, or 600,000 a month altogether, with a membership of over 300,000.
Chuwit said that pharmacies in the future would adjust the proportion of their products and services to focus more on preventing illness rather than treatment.
“We look to technology to improve our business and expand the services to meet the consumer demands. The Bangkok Drugstore app is like a pharmacy in the hand of our customers that can take care of them anytime and anywhere,” the executive said.
Bangkok Drugstore’s technology features include a prescription system designed by doctors and pharmacists with mechanisms to prevent mixing up medicines and warn about the customer’s drug allergy. After receiving their medicines, customers are required to scan QR code through their mobile app to ensure they are the right drugs.
In addition to digital improvement, Bangkok Drugstore also plans to expand into the provinces and add more digital based services through collaboration with business allies.
“The pharmaceutical business will become part of healthcare development driven by technology,” Chuwit said.
Also, he added, the health insurance business will see a big change as it will be connected with the healthcare ecosystem. “If insurance protection covers illness that can be taken care of by pharmacies, people will get better access to personal health insurance at more affordable prices,” the executive concludes.
